Power conditioning devices, or simply power conditioners, are used to improve the quality of electricity provided to equipment connected thereto, such as to ensure a substantially constant sinusoidal alternating current (AC) wave over varying supply conditions. It is to be understood that the term power refers to electrical power provided to and drawn by a load, and to electricity, i.e., voltage and current. The meaning of the term will be clear from the context in which it is used herein.
Electricity provided by a power conditioner may be filtered to remove various noise components and may be limited, clamped or diverted to prevent spikes and voltage surges from entering the protected equipment. Power conditioners may use filter circuits to filter out noise signals from the AC supply voltage and suppressor circuits to suppress transients/surges from the AC supply voltage, thereby limiting these potentially disruptive/damaging conditions from reaching connected equipment. Such power conditioners may have multiple outlets to which the equipment can be connected and through which the conditioned power may be provided. In certain systems, the connected load equipment is treated as a single load, i.e., a voltage surge in the supply power is prevented from entering all connected equipment. However, a heavy draw of power by a single load may interrupt power to loads connected to outputs of the power conditioner. Thus, the requirements of individual load equipment cannot be accommodated by a single power conditioner. While this may present little impediment in certain applications, other applications would require multiple power conditioners to satisfy the requirements of multiple loads, even when these loads are in close proximity to each other. There is thus an apparent need for control over individual outlets and the power drawn therefrom and for means by which such control may be monitored and modified from a central location.